COMPAT_ULTRIX(8) OpenBSD System Manager's Manual COMPAT_ULTRIX(8)
NAMEcompat_ultrix - setup procedure for running Ultrix binaries under emula-
tion
DESCRIPTION
OpenBSD/mips and OpenBSD/vax architectures can run Risc ULTRIX and Vax
ULTRIX executables, respectively. However, you have to worry about the
legal issues of ensuring that you have a right to use any ULTRIX binaries
on your machine.
Most executables will work. The exceptions include programs that use
proprietary, Ultrix-specific features (LAT, CI support, DECnet support)
and various system calls, ioctl()'s, or Ultrix kernel semantics that are
difficult to emulate (e.g., Ultrix packetfilter) or buggy (e.g., Ultrix
YP).
All Ultrix executables are static, so no shared libraries are required
for Ultrix compatiblity. However, Ultrix is based on a 4.3BSD alpha re-
lease. Ultrix commands and libraries are often much older than their
OpenBSD or even SunOS 4.x equivalents, and may require incompatible con-
figuration files.
SYSTEM CONFIGURATION FILES
Set up resolv.conf and svc.conf as below:
# mkdir -p /emul/ultrix/etc
# cd /emul/ultrix/etc
# egrep 'domain|nameserver' /etc/resolv.conf > ./resolv.conf
# cp -p /usr/share/samples/emul/ultrix/etc/* ./
/etc/resolv.conf
The Ultrix resolver library only understands domain and nameserver lines
in /etc/resolv.conf(5). You should create a copy of /etc/resolv.conf
containing only those commands and put it in /emul/ultrix/etc/re-
solv.conf. Note that the domain search order used by Ultrix executables
may not be the same as native binaries; there is no good way around this.
/etc/svc.conf
Ultrix uses /etc/svc.conf to select an ordered search of YP, Hesiod, or
local flat-file mappings. You should create an /emul/ultrix/etc/svc.conf
specifying either local files or bind (DNS) lookups for all Ultrix name
services.
BUGS
RISC Ultrix YP(NIS) is known to not work. The Ultrix YP libraries have a
consistent endian-ness bug. Ultrix YP client will not inter-operate with
the OpenBSD ypbind(8) process. The only workaround is to use
/etc/svc.conf to disable YP(NIS).
The ndbm hashed-password file used by Ultrix are incompatible with the db
hashed-password file used by OpenBSD. There is no good solution for this.
(YP would be a good one, if Ultrix YP worked.)
The API used by Xservers to talk to the kernel is currently compatible
with Ultrix 4.1. An implementation of the Ultrix 4.2 Xws interface (used
by X11R6) is in progress.
A complete list of things which fail to work in Ultrix compatibility mode
should be added here.
SEE ALSOresolv.conf(5).
OpenBSD June 7, 1997 1